Being the reviews and ramblings of an incurable narcissist with too much time on his hands.

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Review: Mama

Ghost based movies, in particular the jump-scare variety,
have always had a deficiency in the story and character department. Various
recent good entries have tried to compensate for this in different ways, to
varying success: Woman in Black tried
to compensate with a great set and an unrelenting second act, Sinister tried to make the concept do
most of the work. Mama takes the
novel approach of having a solid story with good characters. Fancy that.

Quickly rehashing the plot: A business executive, upon finding
out he’s bankrupt, kills his estranged wife and kidnaps his two daughters,
taking them out into a cabin deep in the woods, intending to commit a
murder/suicide. He is stopped by a …thing. 5 years later, the executive’s twin
brother (both of them played by Nikolaj
Coster-Waldau who those of you with good taste might know as Jamie Lannister
from Game of Thrones) finds them,
still living in the woods. The thing turns out to be a ghost the girls call
Mama, who has been caring for the girls, and follows them home when the brother
and his punk girlfriend (Jessica Chastain…no really) take them in on the advice
of a watchful psychiatrist.

You’re
probably expecting a lot of jump out scares with that premise, and you’ll get
them, but the movie is actually more creative than that. The film is very fond
of long uncut shots, which are well spaced out and used. There are also a pair
of extremely creative dream sequences, with some interesting cinematography and
visuals, which help elevate the film as a whole to above average.

Another
assist the movie gets is from the actors. Jessica Chastain is excellent,
playing a character that is miles away from her performance in Zero Dark Thirty, but is still an
interesting one. Her character is reluctant to care for the kids when Mama
causes an accident that puts her boyfriend out of action, but manages to slowly
summon up her maternal instinct. Her character arc and the acting she puts into
it are one of the main ways this movie is better than usual for it’s genre.

Aside from
her, the other actors are all doing their jobs well. Nikolaj acquits himself
nicely in a secondary role, and between him and Lena Heady in Dredd, I’m hoping more Game of Thrones will get more work (now
can we get Peter Dinklage in more things? I mean, we’ve all seen The Station Agent and Death at a Funeral right, so we know how
good he is). The two girls are solid, managing to be exceptionally creepy when
called for (especially the younger one) but also sympathetic (especially the
older one…huh). Special mention must also go to actor Javier Botet under heavy
makeup and CGI as Mama.

Aside from
that (that it’s well acted and quite scary) there’s not a whole ton to say.
It’s about as original as jump scare horror flick can be, it’s mostly well
written, the ghost design is nicely original and her goals and backstory make
her a tiny bit more interesting than the usual “Cuz evil” explanation for
ghosts in these movies. I guess there are some minor issues here and there:
There’s some ‘Horror Dumb’ going around, Jessica Chastain occasionally seems to
lack peripheral vision and Mama’s ability set can be a tiny bit on the vague
side. But those are all par for the course with this genre and none of them are
deal breakers.

Horror is
rarely, if ever, aiming for the artistic side of things. It’s always nice when
it does, but it can often make it through without it so long as it succeeds at
what it wants to be. And Mama wants
to be a ride, a movie where you jump and shriek, and it’s highly successful at
that, and manages to be a well made movie on top of that. New director Andres
Muschietti is a definite talent and it’s nice to see Guiellmo Del Toro
producing a good horror film after the…unpleasantness that was Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark (don’t get
me wrong, when it comes to directing he’s still coming up aces all around).
This is January, which means that there’s a lot of crap clogging up the
theaters. Mama however isn’t, and if
you’re in the market for a horror flick, you’re probably not going to do better
than it. Recommended.

Elessar is a 22 year old Alaskan born
cinephile and he’s decided that Nikolaj’s dog is named Sandor Clegane.